Unknown Savior
by Kitera-Matar
Summary: OotP spoiler. NO SLASH! The Black family once again comes to Harry's rescue, but he doesn't know it... UPDATED! New chap 3 and revised 1 and 2.
1. The Stranger

Unknown Savior

Chapter 1: The Stranger

Summary: OotP spoiler. "She must remain unknown to Harry. She saved his life and she will be his Unknown Savior. My, the Blacks do tend to be closely related with Harry."

Disclaimer: Well you probably know the rigmarole, but I'll say it anyway. Most of the places, people, or things in this story come from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. They are J. K. Rowling "s and not mine.

Background: This is an AU after the end of book 5. A short little ficlet about a small adventure that could fit into the books fact wise.

Note I: I have based this loosely off my other story, Black in Death (http/ which is about how Tonks takes Sirius' death. But though I recommend you r/r that, it is not necessary to read this story.

Note II: This is a bit Mary Sue-ish. You'll see why at the end of this chap, I'll explain more then.

Note III: I may have gotten some facts wrong, and if I did, and you notice, please tell me and I will try to change it asap. I am also not the greatest speller or typer and the computer is fallible.

Note IV: I just recently changed this so that the NT/RL in this was more romantic. I also changed her introduction so it was a bit more believable.

That night, the night Sirius died, was the night it all began.

Lupin and Moody had gone back to the Black House and Kingsley had gone home after taking Tonks to the hospital. Moody would be going home tomorrow but Lupin would stay for a while. As for the house, it would still be used as the Order's headquarters.

The next day Lupin and Moody slept most of the day, waking only occasionally to eat and go to the bathroom before falling back into bed. They were exhausted, both mentally and physically. Later that day Kingsley stopped by with Tonks, who had just gotten out of the hospital. She would stay with Lupin in the Black's house for bit before moving back to her home. They all piled her into an extra bed. She was still tired and the healing had taken a lot out of her, so she slept through the entire moving. Finally, Kingsley went back home and Lupin and Moody went back to bed.

Lupin had just managed to fall into a restless sleep when he heard something. Something that sounded strangely like crying. He slipped out of bed and thanked his luck that at least he had gained silence from his werewolf side. He slipped outside the bedroom, and headed down to the kitchen. The kitchen door was open a crack, and a thin crack of light lay on the floor and his face. He paused in the shadows by the door and looked in through the crack to see who it was that was sitting at the table.

The light from the dying embers flickered over the spiky pink hair and the robed form of Tonks.

Lupin had quietly walked in and sat next to her before her quiet sobs stopped. She pulled her head up from the cradle her arms had formed and stared at Lupin blankly for a second. Her eyes could not focus on him for a second and then it sank in who he was. In the shadow formed from the fire her eyes looked like sunken pits in her face. She attempted to hide the tearstains on her face, but Lupin quickly put his right hand on her arm and said, "Don't hide from me Tonks."

Perhaps it was because he had a knowing and kind expression on his face, or he was going through the same sadness as herself, or maybe she was on an emotional roller coaster ride, or maybe all of the above. But she opened to him. He held her and rocked her while she cried herself out on his chest. He had thought he had let out all of his tears at the Ministry of Magic, but more tears spilled from his eyes and the pair rocked and held each other while they let their sadness out.

Lupin turned to straddle the bench facing the fire so that Tonks could lay on the bench with her head on Lupin's chest and his arms wrapped around her.

Lupin knew she needed the contact and the comfort. He wondered at the protective love her felt at that moment, but pushed it away, not was not the time. He looked at her face and was moved by pity that one so young was so sorrowed. He was reminded of himself when he became a werewolf, and the pain he went through. He saw the same pain on Tonks' face now. Suddenly it hit him that Tonks wasn't that young, but her never-ending cheerfulness made her seem younger. He was drawn to her chipper optimistic attitude. He shook his head as Tonks started to talk.

They talked for a long time about their memories of Sirius. They talked about his handsome appearance and roguish actions. Lupin even told Tonks of the Marauders and some of the adventures they had. After all; half of the group was dead, one turned, and the other, himself, was known about.

They had been talking for several hours when they heard a knock on the door. The coals had died down a long time ago and the house was dark. "Shhh… Be still!" Lupin hissed at Tonks who had started to rise, "You will trip over something, stay here!"

Lupin silently rose, took out his wand, and slipped down the hall. Once he got to the door he preformed a one-way invisibility charm on the door so he could see who it was that was calling at 3 o'clock in the morning.

The person was entrenched in a black waterproof cloak. He could only see bits of a dark charcoal robe and some of the face since the hood was up. The person had a determined chin, full lips, and delicate nose. The muggle streetlamps flickered and the person shifted their weight slightly. There was something familiar about the person but Lupin could not place it.

He took the charm off the door and turned the doorknob, "Yes, may I help you?"

"Is this the Black Residence?" the voice was unmistakably female and sounded like a cat's purr; soft, yet resonating with power and assurance.

Lupin did not hesitate a second, "No. I'm sorry, you must have the wrong address."

He started to shut the door when the girl said, "Wait! I'm Sirius Black's daughter!"

Lupin raised one eyebrow, "You're either really brave or really stupid if you're claiming kinship with Sirius Black, the mass murder and a death eater," he continued to shut the door and almost had the door shut when it was blasted open in a wave of blue-green light.

The girl stood there, her wand pointed at Lupin. She grinned at him before saying, "Not really."

She walked in and looked around, her eyes still in shadows but her face turned slightly from side to side and up and down. The door slipped shut behind her as she walked forward smoothly like a dark shadow. Her dark wand was pointed into the dark shadow that was the hall and she started to move forward softly. Suddenly, Lupin sprang at her and pinned her to the wall. His hand held her wand hand away from him and against the wall. His other hand pointed his wand at her neck as he asked, "Who are you?"

He studied the girl as she glared at him. When she had hit the wall her hood had been thrown off and her face was revealed. She looked like a girl in about her mid-teens. Long black hair had fallen out of her black cloak and framed her pale face and yet more tendrels of the black hair streamed out of her dark wrappings. She looked like a black tigerwith her round dark eyes, small nose, and full lips pulled back in a snarl at Lupin.

"You're not in much of a position to ask questions," she said, her lips moving into a sneer. He felt a sharp point press into his stomach and looked down. Her other hand held a dagger to his stomach. "It appears were at a stalemate then," she said in her soft, low voice.

All of the sudden they heard a loud high-pitched bellow. "YOU NO GOOD, DIRTY, MUDBLOOD HELPER-" Mrs. Black had obviously woken up. Soft-whispered apologies and a rustling of cloth could barely be heard over Mrs. Black. Her yells were suddenly muffled and Lupin heard cloth rustling before he saw Tonks come into the hall looking shamefaced. Her chagrin quickly dissolved into a fighting stance when she saw Lupin and the girl.

Tonks did not move, knowing that the girl could thrust that dagger into Lupin's soft stomach at any provocation.

Tonks quickly looked the girl over. The knee-length black strands whispered around her light charcoal robe that could be seen through her open cloak. The robe was belted at the waist, and Tonks managed to see the Celtic weave stamped into the leather. The belt also held a sheath for her wand and dagger. The wand was of some dark wood and the knife had a similar color handle and the long leaf shaped blade was double-edged and sharp. Tonks was still frozen in the position from entering the room.

"Smart move Nymphadora, I assume you want Remus alive," the strange girl's soft voice carried across the silent room. Tonks looked startled, but Lupin did not acknowledge the drop of information, or rather, few drops.

"How about we all put down our weapons - not taking any more out either - and we can talk," Lupin stared at the dark haired girl, waiting for an answer that would never come.

Suddenly ropes wound their way around the girl's middle, pushing her arms to her sides and squeezing tight until she dropped her knife and wand. A second later a deep rough voice rang out, "Now let's hear what she has to say Remus," and Moody joined the conversation from the top of the stairs with his wand held out.

Moody clunked down the steps in the striped robes that were his pajamas and simply said, "Let's go into the kitchen." So Tonks led the way while Moody and Lupin followed the girl, Lupin gathering up the knife and wand. Once in the kitchen Tonks re-started the fire while Lupin crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. Moody sat on the bench across from the girl after checking to make sure she had no other weapons, undid the rope charm but tied her legs together once she was sitting.

Tonks rummaged in the cupboards and after several minutes, cups, and pourings later; finally came to the table with four cups of tea. The stranger looked into the cup of tea Tonks had given her and smiled, "Keeping me honest?" at Tonks slight surprise that showed on her face, the girl explained, "You took to long getting the tea together, and I am an unknown stranger in your territory. It makes perfect sense to use the truth serum," and with a shrug of her shoulders still enveloped by the folds of the cloak thrown open, she drained her cup. She shuddered and then her face took on a blank look.

Well? What do you think?

Oh, on the Mary Sue subject. I know that the bit about her being the daughter of Sirius is Mary Sue-ish! But hopefully that is the end of the Mary Sue-ism. We shall see.

Hope you liked her being taken – seemed much more Moody style – blast first, ask later. He was way to trusting before.

Preview of chap 2: The stranger gets interrogated and we find out more about the daughter of Sirius and where she came from and her views and where she will go next.

Hope you guys like the story and will review, thanks!

Kit ;)


	2. The Inquisition

Unknown Savior

Chapter 2: The Inquisition

Disclaimer and Notes: see chap 1

"Who are you?" Lupin started.

"Ciaran Galein," came her emotionless voice.

"Who are your parents?" Lupin inquired.

"Sirius Black and Shavon Galein."

"How is that possible? Sirius never married or was that close to anyone." Tonks asked the others, who also looked very puzzled.

"Magic has its uses," Ciaran grinned though her eyes remained glazed over, "my mom took some of Sirius' sperm, no mean feat, froze it, and later in life, when she was stable with a home and job, put it inside herself. Thus having me."

"Why did she do that?" Tonks asked, a disturbed look on her face.

"She loved him, but he did not return her love so she decided to have a child of his so that at least she would have a part of him with her always."

"A Love Child without love…" Tonks murmured clearly flabbergasted at the extent of the girl's mother's obsession.

"I remember her," Lupin said quietly, "she always did like Sirius…"

"You KNOW her?" Moody almost roared, throwing his arms up in the air.

"I KNEW her! She was at Hogwarts with us, it was a long time ago!" Lupin defended himself.

"How old are you?" Tonks asked, ignoring the other two.

"15."

Tonks gave Lupin and Moody a surprised look, "same age as-"

"Harry." Lupin finished.

Moody just sighed, exasperated at them, "There are many children in this world that are 15, why is this a surprise or an omen? BE SENSIBLE!" He again gave an aggravated roar.

"What do you know of the events surrounding Sirius and this house? For that matter, how do you even know about this house?" Lupin asked, he threw his arms wide to encompass the house as he walked over to the fireplace, prodding it with his wand.

"My mother had been her once during the summer early on in school. She switched bags with Sirius getting off the train so that she would be able to see him during the summer. Dumbledore sent her a letter with Sirius' address that I found when going through my mothers' things. I know he is on the run for the supposed death of 13 people and for being a death eater. Since two aurors and one of his old school friends who happens to have been a Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor at Hogwarts are in his house, something must be going on."

"Are you involved in the Ministry at all?" Tonks asked.

"Yes," they all stiffened, "my mom used to be in the Department of Mysteries, it was the one thing she found joy in. But she quit when they accused Sirius. She said Sirius wouldn't go with HIM." Her derision of He-Who-Not-Must-Be-Named was clear to all of them, she had obviously been raised properly. "She gave up what made her happy and her reputation to stick up for Black. If I could get back at that place for what they did to her..." her anger was apparent.

"Do you believe your mom's views on Sirius?" Tonks asked again.

The girl paused considering before speaking, "My mother was very fair minded – she saw both sides of everything. But her one fault was that what she loved, she tended to have a blind spot for. While I would love to believe that my father was innocent, I need more proof than the hope that my mother and I share."

"What do you think of Dumbledore?" Lupin asked, his expression relenting slightly. Moody threw him a mean glare at his gentle voice.

"My mom respected him, others respect him, he has gained many distinguished awards. He seems sensible, honest, and genuinely caring about others. I've never met him, but I like what I know of him and I trust his judgment as much as I can tell."

"Harry and Voldemort, what are your thoughts on them?" Moody inquired, his blue eyes still fixed on Lupin.

"Well... Dumbledore trusts Harry. So I doubt that he is a head case or a show off as the paper makes him out to be. He-who-must-not-be-named was bound to come back," she shrugged. "Harry is just the first person he fought since he came back, and understandably. But He-who-must-not-be-named should be, and will be, stopped - for all the pain and hurt he has caused." Her determination was apparent in her firm jaw and clenched fists. But her strength could not totally penetrate the liquids' spell and her eyes remained foggy and staring.

Lupin walked across the room to look at her eye-to-eye. Leaning on the table, the clear, deep brown eyes and the foggy, half-closed black eyes locked. "Would you join a group against Voldemort, and even give up your life if need be to save Harry Potter and/or kill Voldemort?"

She did not hesitate in her answer or respond to Voldemort's name, "Yes."

"For which reason, to save Harry or kill He-who-must-not-be-named?" Tonks quickly interjected.

This time, she took a little bit before she answered. "To kill Him, I would without a doubt. But I don't even know Harry, I suppose I would, his position in this whole war seems an important one, so I guess I would."

"If you knew of a group like that, would you join no matter if the people in the group let you in or not?" Moody asked, his blue eye swiveled to fix intently on her.

"If they would not let me in I would follow my own path, to the same goal. But if they let me work with them, I could help them instead of possibly hindering them due to lack of information."

Questioning looks flew through the air, Moody waved the unspoken question away, "She is too young, if we let her in, then we may as well invite Potter, Granger, and Weasley. They have good if impulsive heads on their shoulders too." Lupin nodded in agreement and Tonks hesitatingly did too.

"But should she stay here? Should we tell her of-?" Tonks broke off.

"Well we can't throw her out now can we? Memory charms can be broken. That has been proven many times already. Lets keep her here for now under our eyes so we know where she is and what she's doing. We'll wait before we decide anything. We'll talk to Dumbledore about this first. Lets wait until she comes around first." Moody again decided. "Tonks, will you get the floo powder out please?"

Tonks quickly got up, knocking over several chairs along the way, and started to burrow around in the cupboards, knocking even more things over in her search.

Once the blankness disappeared from Ciaran's eyes, she shook her head and gratefully accepted Tonks' offer of a new cup of tea. Tonks stopped looking for the floo powder and quickly readied a new cup of tea, which she gave her. Moody continued to stare at Ciaran and Lupin had sat down at the table and put his head in his hands. Ciaran sipped at her tea and gazed at all of them over the rim with her dark eyes.

"So, do I pass the test?"

"Yes," Lupin answered, he pushed back his chair and marched across the room, his arms folded this time, staring at the dancing flames his wand had provoked earlier, "So far," he quickly added at Moody's glare.

"What about my father?" Ciaran asked, ignoring the added comment.

Although the faces remained the same, the atmosphere immediately began to become melancholy. Tonks came over and sat beside her, "He was innocent." She said in a whisper.

Ciaran frowned. "Was? Did he suddenly turn or is he-" she stopped speaking. Tonks shook her head before looking down. Ciaran sat rock still and tried to cope with the information. She started to whisper, to herself almost but maybe it was to them as well, "Dead? The man that my mom loved is gone? My father? Where will I go now?" The teacup started to rattle and her hands shook. She quickly set the cup down and clasped her hands in her lap. She straightened her chin and looked at them all. Her blank mask was back up from the slip the news of her father's death had given her. No doubt she had placed much on the hopefulness he would take her in as she had nowhere else to go.

"Thank you for your hospitality. I must be going. Will you please undo your bonds and give me back my things?"

Moody practically roared at her, "And where do ya think you will go? Huh? Where? "

Ciaran remained obstinately staring blankly at them and said coolly, "I will find a place."

"Yeah on a muggle park bench most likely, the easiest place for Voldemort to find you!" Again, Ciaran did not react to the name of the Dark Lord hounding them. He need not have added '_and us'_, they were all thinking it. But Moody had just opened his mouth to roar some more and start what promised to be a full-blown argument that Fred and George would have been very sore to have missed seeing, when they heard a rap on the door. Moody silently clumped his way to the door grumbling about late night arrivals.

He returned a few minutes later with Mundungus Flecher behind him. Dung entered the room, stood, and gaped at the sight of Ciaran. "Sarah? What're you doin' here?" he asked blatantly confused.

"Sarah?"

"You _know_ her?"

"What!"

The exclamations of Tonks, Lupin, and Moody overlapped in the carrying confusion.

In the resulting conversations that overlapped everyone managed to gleam the facts that Ciaran knew Dung, in the guise of Sarah Mortis. 'Sarah' had gotten Dung information on a good deal on pots while he had gotten her information about people that Sarah had seen when she staked out 13 Grimwauld Place – none of whom were Sirius Black. Dung got the pots and was quite happy, but it had taken Sarah quite a bit of time to figure out what was going on.

She heard about how close Black was to the Potters and Dumbledore before he became a death eater, she also heard about how Black had 'escaped' from Dumbledore. It all did not sit quite well with her gut, (or maybe it was the fact that she was not eating much, she had to limit her spending with how little money was left from her mother). So had staked out the place and the people to figure out what was going on first before barging in to try and find out about her father. The house was the only lead she had as to where her father was now. As she was sure he probably wasn't there. She had found out in that course of time about members who were rumored to be on Dumbledore's Phoenix team, although no one was quite sure what that was.

They were all steaming mad once they all figured out what had happened, well, all except Dung. Ciaran was mad about some of the false information and her year of painstaking stake-outs and information gathering and the rest were mad about the pots deal that had apparently caused Dung to leave some sort of 'duty' to get them and that a mere girl had been able to get so much information from him. The only reason Dung was not killed on the spot was Tonks pointing out that it HAD taken Ciaran a year of doing nothing but stake-outs and gathering information to find him since she had nothing else to do and no place to go.

"Well how was I suppose to know he'd get them while he was suppose to be doing something!" Ciaran threw up her arms amid the babble, still mad about the false tips Dung had given her. Finally after 10 minutes Moody placed a silencing charm on the whole kitchen. When everyone had calmed down enough he removed the spell and said in his croaky voice, "Well, this is a surprise. Now lets sort this all out now." Tonks groaned but did not protest.

They all sat down started the finagling and bargaining. At one point Lupin said in his quiet voice, "Why don't we ask Dumbledore now?" Moody nodded his grizzled head and Tonks got up to pick up the box she had finally found amid a pile of the crockery she had broken. Dung just slid down further in his seat. So the floo was brought out and soon Dumbledore's head poked through the fire. Ash swirled around his ancient face making it look as if he had become part phoenix and was burning up.

"What has happened here?" Dumbledore's swift eyes had quickly taken in the red faces, Dung's slouched position so only his dirty forehead showed above the table, and the stranger. Moody quickly told the tale and Dumbledore listened attentively. Dumbledore did not fail to notice how Ciaran stiffened at hearing how much information she had given. "Well, that is a mighty interesting tale!" He exclaimed, "My dear, Ciaran, correct? Well, yes, Moody's right, we can not just throw you out like this now."

"Moody, you are certain she is the daughter of Sirius? Have you tried the Parentus Charm?" At Moody's red-faced no, Moody quickly got up and preformed the charm, "Vidimus Parentus!" A pink and a blue streamer flew from the tip of his wand and swirled around Ciaran. She pushed the bench back, but still couldn't get up. Her face showed she was scared but she quickly covered it. The streamers swirled faster and faster around her until they formed a golden nebula surrounding her. Her long black hair flew around her in the resulting breeze. But her face remained calm and expressionless with the exception of her eyes widening slightly. Abruptly the two ribbons of light sheared off and formed two ghostly figures of Ciaran's parentage to her right and left.

The pink figure on her right was of a woman. She was about 5' 6'ish and had hair down to the bottom of her back. Her face was warm but sad and looked distinctly Irish. "Shavon…" Lupin breathed.

The blue figure to her left was of Sirius Black. He was considerably younger and much less sorrowed. There were no lines around his eyes and the lively light was still there in his twinkling merry eyes. "Sirius!" Tonks sobbed, her throat catching on the name of her favorite cousin.

There was no doubt that she was the daughter of Sirius Black.

"Well, then, that settles it! Ciaran my dear, you are to stay here at your father's home and the Black Mansion. Lupin, Tonks, Moody, can you all stay here with her for now? Maybe we can get her into Hogwarts come next term." He smiled indulgently at the happy look that had quickly crossed Ciaran's face. She had been on her own for a long time and had to keep her emotions in check that whole time, but she was still a girl of 15.

"For now, we must tell her a little of what goes on here. Ciaran, do you know the truth about your father?"

"I know he was innocent, and that he is dead." Her face again took that eerily blankness that reminded all of them of how much time she had spent on her own amid the streets.

"He was innocent, a different friend of the Potters was the one responsible for their death. He just died a few days ago in a fight against Voldemort. Sirius gave us this house to use as a base of operations since he was sequestered here in hiding, he could do little else. So this is the meeting house for a group called the Order of the Phoenix, we fight Voldemort, and that is all I will tell you and all you will be told. Do not seek information beyond that. If you need to know it, you will be told." His gray eyes turned steely as he gazed at her. "At this time, information is a deadly gift."

"You mean he was here when I was trying to figure out what was going on?" He face still gave nothing away, but Dubledore's eyes softened.

"Not all the time, and if you didn't realize that than that's a good sign to our hiding abilities!" He eyes grew serious as he locked eyes with her, "Don't dwell on it my dear. You did a very smart thing by figuring out what was going on her before you came."

He then looked around at the group assembled before him over his half-moon spectacles. "Now I must leave, we will discuss this to a greater length later, but for now - Welcome Ciaran and I hope you like it here." He said, his attention refocused on Ciaran, and with a 'pop!' he was gone and they were all staring at the fire, a distinct let down in the room after such a powerful presence had gone.

Ciaran knew she was good at weaponry and magic, and that he quick wits helped her, but it was not until she met Dumbledore did she truly get knocked down a few pegs in her self-esteem.

"Well then, time for bed! I'm beat! Come on Ciaran, I'll show you to your room!" And Tonks gave Ciaran a friendly smile before untying her legs and handing her back her stuff that she grabbed from Lupin and leading her out. Moody, Lupin and, and Dung followed soon after.

Well, that's 2! Enjoy! Oh, as for the parents charm – it should be latin for to see parents.

Preview of 3: Ciaran and Tonks talk – about A LOT. More about what Ciaran knows of Sirius is revealed and Ciaran decides to do something…

Please leave your thoughts and reviews!

Kit ;)


	3. The Ring

Unknown Savior

Chapter 3: The Ring

Disclaimer: see chap 1

Note: I may have gotten some facts wrong, and if I did, and you notice, please tell me and I will try to change it asap. I am also not the greatest speller or typer and the computer is fallible.

The next day was a busy one. Ciaran got up and was immediately put to work cleaning the house. Tonks' cleaning charms were hopeless and Ciaran's were not much better so they worked side by side the muggle way – by hand. They stopped for lunch around midday and ate a simple lunch of cold meats on a sandwich. They talked of little things, nothing big, and nothing serious - no pun intended.

When they stopped for a break Tonks looked at Ciaran out of the corner of her eye. They were both sitting on a box and leaning against a plain cupboard housing some brooms, both for sweeping and flying. Tonks finally blurted out something that had been bothering her all day, "What's that chain you're wearing?"

Ciaran gave Tonks a startled look before she slowly pulled the silver chain out from her robes and revealed the silver ring dangling on it. The sunlight filtering in from the yet to be cleaned dusty windows sparkled off of the plain silver band about a half inch thick. There was a star shaped black onyx stone set in the top.

"He gave it to my mom one time at Hogwarts. I think it was more to show off than anything, but she sized it to her ring finger and wore it all the time. Before my mom died, she gave it to me. I could not stand wearing it, I mean, I have never even met the man! But I could not just throw it away or pack it away somewhere either. So I got a silver chain and carry it that way."

Tonks leaned over and looked closely at the ring, "May I?" she asked questioningly. Ciaran unclasped the chain and handed the ring to Tonks. Tonks looked at the ring and felt unbidden tears some to her eyes.

"What? It is just a ring. What is wrong?" Tonks leaned over to see what was distressing Tonks so much.

Tonks was staring at the inside of the ring, where "Love, Padfoot" was written in Sirius' scrawl along with a paw print. "Padfoot," she whispered. Ciaran gazed at her, no emotions showing, but inside her emotions were beginning to swirl like crazy. With the strength of long effort and practice she forced them down without a single twinge upon her face.

"It's strange how such a simple word can convey such strong emotions and feelings." Tonks looked at Ciaran wonderingly. Ciaran was not sure if Tonks was talking about emotions in herself or in Ciaran. Ciaran shrugged and bit into her sandwich. Tonk's eyes narrowed. "Even you have to feel SOMETHING about him."

Ciaran stared at the dusty floor for a bit not answering. "I do. But they get me nowhere. The emotions I mean…" Ciaran stared at her sandwich and flipped it over to look at the bottom. It was as if the sandwich was her emotions and she was examining every aspect to figure out what she was feeling. "I guess I gave up on him, at least I said I did. Maybe in my heart I always believed that he would be as great as my mom said and that he would survive and get himself out of this mess and meet me someday. Guess I was wrong – either that or too late." Ciaran gave a short laugh that sounded strangely like Sirius' bark of laughter. "Oh well, no use crying over spilt milk."

Tonks looked at Ciaran. Ciaran looked at Tonks out of the corner of her eye. Finally, "What is it Tonks? I'm not going to explode."

Tonks sighed and looked down, "Yeah, I know that."

Tonks moved the ring to get some better light to see the paw print. As the ring moved and the sun glanced across the imprint Tonks gasped. Lines seemed to appear of out nowhere and connect the toes and the paw of the paw print. It connected and formed – horns. Tonks blinked stupidly at the ring for a second. "Sirius and James, best friends until the very end."

Ciaran shrugged, "The horns refer to James Potter I assume?" she said coldly. "I've noticed that trick a long time ago but did not know the significance until now."

"Yes," Tonks said, wondering at Ciaran's coldness. "What's wrong?"

"He stole my 'father' from me." Tonks eyebrows raised at that.

"He, what?"

"Stole. Sirius was so wrapped up in James that he did not notice anything or anyone else. He was intent on being what he was best, a heart-breaker."

Tonks was not sure whether to laugh or cry at Ciaran's view of her father. "Where do you get your idea of him as a heartbreaker as?"

"My mother. She had a pensive, She put all of her memories of Sirius in there, she liked to go into them or look at him, it was not hard to go through all of her memories," Ciaran said dismissively.

Tonks nearly laughed, "Sirius may have been a heart-breaker, but I think that was more of James' role. James' was the show-off for the girls, Sirius was the rule-breaker."

Ciaran was quiet for a moment before speaking again, "Sirius lost that ring when he was at school. My mother found it and kept it, one day he found out that she had it. He laughed. He told her that she could keep it, he already had another. I wondered what he meant for a long time. I figured it had something to do with the horns, but now I bet it was something that James gave him, a transmitting device or best friend gift, who knows. Who cares," Ciaran slumped where she sat.

Tonks heard her muffled voice and had to strain to understand Ciaran, "I used to dream that mom and Sirius would meet one day and he would fall madly in love with her as she had with him long ago." She sighed deeply, "But that was never to be."

"Do you hate James for supposedly 'taking away' Sirius?" Tonks asked curiously.

"Hate? No. Jealous? Yes." Ciaran brought her head back up and stared out of the dusty windows. The sun was setting and the room was imbued with a dull red-orange light. "They were able to spend time with him, see who he was and become friends with him."

She stood up and walked across the room, Tonks was forgotten in her speech to herself. She ran a finger down a dusty pane and left a single clear path. "He was my father, and I never even saw him!" She suddenly punched through the pane in a burst of anger.

Tonks had the pane back to normal and Ciaran's hand all patched up in minutes, but the drain was obvious on Tonks who was already tired from cleaning and now many spells which she was not the best at performing. Tonks tried to cheer Ciaran up though, "Maybe you can talk to Harry sometime, see what he has to say. I'm no good at this stuff, he was close to Sirius and your age, he practically saw Sirisu as a father, maybe he can help you out. But not now, later." Tonks dropped onto the box again and slumped against the wall.

"Why don't you go up to bed Tonks? I'll put the rest of this stuff away and come up in a bit?" Ciaran asked, she felt guilty for draining what was left of Tonks, especially after she had come out of the hospital on a few days ago.

Tonks gave a weak laugh, "well, I'll tell you one thing, there's no doubt in my mind where you get your anger and strength from! If you don't mind, I think I will, I am SO tired. Come up soon?"

Ciaran agreed and shooed Tonks up the stairs. But Ciaran went back to looking out through the window in the one path she had made with her finger. The light slowly blurred from red-orange, to red, to purple to blue, to black. And still, she stood still and silent against the window.

Finally she turned and lighting her wand, stuck it in her pocket, and picked up the rest of the cleaning supplies and took them down to the kitchen. When she came back up she paused at the broom cupboard and looked at it. "I wonder what one who knew my father is like. Can he tell me what he was like?" she whispered to herself. And before she knew fully what she was doing. She threw open the cupboard and pulled out an old black cloak and a Cleansweep 7.

So there you have it, enjoy!

I just sorta took a broomstick name out of my head, I'll look up what would broom was around when Sirius was in Hogwarts – coming from a rich family it makes sense that he would have the best of the best. He probably would have left it anyways when he left home – leave all that the Blacks gave him.

Do you think the end is a bit rushed/scratchy? Ugh, R/R!

Preview of 4: Off she goes! (I think you know where…) But Ciaran meets more there than she expected, what will happen next? Ohhhh… read and find out!

Kit ;)


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